Don't see Mandy Patinkin at Ravinia

Mandy Patinkin is coming to Ravinia on August 31 and I think we should give him the welcome he deserves-our absence. Patinkin, who has made his living off of being Jewish and playing Jewish roles, threw in his Jewish credentials with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement to deligitimize the State of Israel when he joined “Hollywood, Broadway Stars Israeli Cultural Boycott” last September.

The boycott was condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The State of Israel is under an attack of delegitimization by elements in the international community. The last thing we need at this time is to be under such an attack -- I mean this attempt at a boycott -- from within.”

Patinkin, who must have recently acquired credentials in international law, proclaimed “The settlements are in direct violation of the Green Line and of international law…It is now the artists who are standing up and saying, we refuse to play in a new theater that you have built in an illegal settlement, and we are asking the world to pay attention.”

Well, I am paying attention and therefore not paying to hear a man who sings with the international chorus of Israel bashers.